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VOLUME 95 - NUMBER 36
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
White Rock Baptist Church, 3400 Fayetteville Street in Dur
ham, will present a Community Gospel Concert featuring Dur
ham’s own pastor Shirley Caesar as part of the church’s 150th
anniversary celebration Sunday, September 25, beginning at
4:30 p.m., in the auditorium at Hillside High School. Tickets are
available online at whiterockbc.eventbrite.com, as well as in the
church office. Pastor Caesar is widely known as the “First Lady
of Gospel Music”, and was recently honored with a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Lawyer: Former Mississippi
officer indicted in 2015 shooting
By Jeff Amy
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - A lawyer said Sept. 8 that a former
Mississippi police officer who is white has been indicted in the
October 2015 shooting death of a black man.
Attorney Jim Waide said a prosecutor told him Canyon
Boykin, a white former police officer in Columbus, has been
indicted for manslaughter in the death of Ricky Ball. Boykin
hasn’t yet been served with the indictment, but Waide said he’s
scheduled to appear in court Sept. 9 in Columbus.
District Attorney Scott Colom transferred the case to Mis
sissippi Attorney General Jim Hood in July, saying it would
prevent appearance of bias. Hood’s office agreed to present the
case to a Lowndes County grand jury.
A spokeswoman for Hood declined to comment Sept. 8, cit
ing court rules. Indictments remain secret until served in Mis
sissippi.
Boykin has said he shot Ball after the 26-year-old appeared
to point a gun at Boykin during a foot chase. Ball’s family has
disputed whether Boykin had cause to shoot Ball, one ofmany
shootings under heightened scrutiny after the death of Michael
Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2015.
Philip Stinson Sr., a criminal justice professor at Bowling
Green State University in Ohio, found that from 2005 to 2015,
65 police officers were charged with murder or manslaugh
ter after shooting and killing someone while on duty. Stinson
found that only 22 percent of those charged through 2014 had
been convicted. Stinson said 18 officers were charged in 2015,
the most during the time period
“Juries seem reluctant to second-guess the split second life-
or-death decisions of police officers to employ deadly force in
street encounters,” Stinson wrote in an online research brief.
Waide said in July that Boykin’s actions were justified, say
ing there was “absolutely no basis for a criminal indictment.”
The city fired Boykin as he was trying to resign within
weeks of the shooting, saying he had broken department policy
by not turning on his body camera, by inviting his then-fiancee
to ride along with the patrol without permission, and by mak
ing social media posts that were derogatory toward African-
Americans, women and disabled people.
Boykin sued the city in February, claiming officials violated
his First Amendment rights by firing him over social media
posts, violating his due process rights by not giving him an
unbiased hearing, and knuckling under to “uninformed public
pressure.” He’s seeking money damages and reinstatement in
a suit that remains pending. City officials have denied wrong-
doing.
In the lawsuit, Boykin said he shocked Ball with a stun gun,
and then saw while Ball was lying on the ground that he had a
handgun. Boykin said that Ball recovered from the shock and
began to run again, turning as if to shoot the officer. Boykin
said that’s when he shot Ball. Hit twice by bullets, Ball was
taken to a local hospital and died from blood loss.
A pistol that had been reported stolen from a Columbus po
lice officer’s home was found near Ball’s body, as was a sub
stance believed to be marijuana, authorities said. Boykin said
Ball also threw away some cocaine he was carrying during the
chase.
Investigators have released no findings on Boykin’s claims.
Colom said in July that because he deals so closely with lo
cal police and is the former Columbus city prosecutor, people
could question his impartiality.
Colom, who himself is black, unseated longtime prosecutor
Forrest Allgood last year in an expensive race where Colom
said he would spend less time prosecuting people for low-level
drug crimes. Liberal financier George Soros spent more than
$700,000 to support Colom and attack Allgood, who had at
tracted criticism for prosecuting people later found innocent
Appeals court blocks proof-of-
citizenship voting requirement
By Sam Hananel
WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal appeals court on Sept. 9 blocked Kansas, Georgia and Alabama from requiring residents to prove the’
are U.S. citizens when registering to vote using a national form.
The 2-1 ruling is a victory for voting rights groups who said a U.S. election official illegally changed proof-of-citizenship requirements oi
the federal registration form at the behest of the three states.
People registering to vote in other states are only required to swear that that they are citizens, not show documentary proof.
The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia acted swiftly in the case, issuing a two-page, unsignei
ruling just a day after hearing oral arguments. A federal judge in July had refused to block the requirement while the case is considered on th,
merits.
(Continued On Page 12)
A Correction
Ms. Mayme Webb-Bledsoe was honored as an honoree at the
Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People Founder’s
Banquet. She was misidentified in the Sept. 3 issue. We regret
the error and apologize to Ms. Webb-Bledsoe and Mrs. Annie
Clement.
Eyes on North Carolina as
GOP-led board settles voting
By Gary Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina’s Board of Elections
worked county by county Sept. 8 to approve early-voting
plans that were redrawn after a federal court voided much
of the state’s election law as discriminatory toward Afri
can-Americans.
The board’s three Republicans and two Democrats
debated before a standing-room-only audience that was
watching carefully as they settled disputes in 33 of the
state’s 100 counties where local boards failed to present
unanimous plans.
Generally, the state board was favoring the local ma
jorities’ proposals for the dates, hours and sites where in-
person early voting will now cover 17 days before the
November election, to comply with the federal court.
Whether to allow Sunday voting has been a conten
tious question, which the court left to the state’s dis
cretion. African-American churches have traditionally
driven members to vote in “souls to the polls” efforts on
Sundays, benefiting Democratic candidates more than
Republicans.
In two key counties - Rockingham, north of Greens
boro; and Gaston, west of Charlotte - the GOP-led board
approved Republican plans that keep early-voting sites
closed on Sundays.
In Craven County, near the coast, however, the board’s
three Republicans made a concession, agreeing to open a
single early voting site for four hours on a Sunday. Dem
ocrats had wanted two Sundays of voting before Election
Day.
Civil rights activists have accused some Republicans
of seeking to undermine the appellate court ruling by
proposing still more barriers to ballot access.
Michael Palmer, chair Civic Committee, Durham Commit
tee, left, is shown with Mrs. Annie Clement, wife of the late
A.J. Howard Clement, III who was remembered during the
Durham Committee Founder’s Banquet. She was misidentified
in the Sept. 3 issue.
GOP leaders have countered that it’s fair for Republi
cans to use rules to their advantage, and that Democrats
need to stop whining and play the game.
Florida Supreme Court Justice James
Perry forced to retire
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida Supreme Court Justice
James Perry is stepping down from his post because he has reached
the mandatory retirement age.
Perry sent a letter to Gov. Rick Scott on Sept. 9 telling him that he
would leave the court on Dec. 30. Perry was appointed by then-Gov.
Charlie Crist to the state Supreme Court in 2009. He was the fourth
black justice appointed to the court.
Florida law requires that justices retire once they turn 70, although
they can serve out their term if their birthday falls in the last three
years of their six-year term. Perry is 72.
Perry’s departure gives Scott a chance to alter the makeup of the
Supreme Court, which has angered Republican legislators with some
of its decisions. Scott will appoint a successor from a list given to
him by a nominating commission.
North Carolina NAA CP sets tours in
eastern North Carolina
NEW BERN (AP) - The North Carolina chapter of the NAACP
is joining with local chapters and other advocacy groups in a tour to
mark what it calls victories against voter suppression.
The NAACP says in a news release that its tour is scheduled for
Sept. 10, and starts at noon in New Bern. Another tour stop is slated
for Elizabeth City. Along with the state chapter, representatives of
the Craven and Pasquotank branches will be represented on the tours.
Democracy North Carolina and local advocacy groups are sched
ule to join the tour stops.